OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Arithmetizing Shape Analysis
Venue: arXiv cs.PL 2024
Year: 2024

Memory safety is an essential correctness property of software systems. For programs operating on linked heap-allocated data structures, the problem of proving memory safety boils down to analyzing the possible shapes of data structures, leading to the field of shape analysis. This paper presents a novel reduction-based approach to memory safety analysis that relies on two forms of abstraction: flow abstraction, representing global properties of the heap graph through local flow equations; and view abstraction, which enable verification tools to reason symbolically about an unbounded number of heap objects. In combination, the two abstractions make it possible to reduce memory-safety proofs to proofs about heap-less imperative programs that can be discharged using off-the-shelf software verification tools without built-in support for heap reasoning. Using an empirical evaluation on a broad range of programs, the paper shows that the reduction approach can effectively verify memory safety for sequential and concurrent programs operating on different kinds of linked data structures, including singly-linked, doubly-linked, and nested lists as well as trees.
Learning to Route for Dynamic Adapter Composition in Continual Learning with Language Models
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) methods are increasingly used with pre-trained language models (PLMs) for continual learning (CL). These methods typically involve training a PEFT module for each new task and employing similarity-based selection to route modules during inference. However, they face two major limitations: 1) interference during module training with already learned modules and 2) suboptimal routing when composing modules. In this paper, we present L2R, a method that isolates the training of new PEFT modules to ensure their task specialization. L2R then learns to compose the learned modules by training a network of routers that leverages a small memory containing examples of previously seen tasks. We evaluate our method in two CL setups using various benchmarks. Our results demonstrate that L2R provides an effective composition of PEFT modules, leading to improved generalization and performance compared to other methods.
Twin Sorting Dynamic Programming Assisted User Association and Wireless Bandwidth Allocation for Hierarchical Federated Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

In this paper, we study user association and wireless bandwidth allocation for a hierarchical federated learning system that consists of mobile users, edge servers, and a cloud server. To minimize the length of a global round in hierarchical federated learning with equal bandwidth allocation, we formulate a combinatorial optimization problem. We design the twin sorting dynamic programming (TSDP) algorithm that obtains a globally optimal solution in polynomial time when there are two edge servers. In addition, we put forward the TSDP-assisted algorithm for user association when there are three or more edge servers. Furthermore, given a user association matrix, we formulate and solve a convex optimization problem for optimal wireless bandwidth allocation. Simulation results show that the proposed approach outperforms a number of alternative schemes.
Not Too Long, Not Too Short: Goldilocks Principle of 'Optimal' Reflection Time on Online Deliberation Platforms
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2024
Year: 2024

The deliberative potential of online platforms has been widely examined but the impact of reflection time on the quality of deliberation remains under-explored. This paper presents two user studies involving 100 and 72 participants respectively, to investigate the impact of reflection time on the quality of deliberation in minute-scale deliberations. In the first study, we identified an optimal reflection time for composing short opinion comments. In the second study, we introduced four distinct interface-based time nudges aimed at encouraging reflection near the optimal time. While these nudges may not improve the quality of deliberation, they effectively prolonged reflection periods. Additionally, we observed mixed effects on users' experience, influenced by the nature of the time nudges. Our findings suggest that reflection time is crucial, particularly for users who typically deliberate below the optimal reflection threshold.
Research on color recipe recommendation based on unstructured data using TENN
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Recently, services and business models based on large language models, such as OpenAI Chatgpt, Google BARD, and Microsoft copilot, have been introduced, and the applications utilizing natural language processing with deep learning are increasing, and it is one of the natural language preprocessing methods. Conversion to machine language through tokenization and processing of unstructured data are increasing. Although algorithms that can understand and apply human language are becoming increasingly sophisticated, it is difficult to apply them to processes that rely on human emotions and senses in industries that still mainly deal with standardized data. In particular, in processes where brightness, saturation, and color information are essential, such as painting and injection molding, most small and medium-sized companies, excluding large corporations, rely on the tacit knowledge and sensibility of color mixers, and even customer companies often present non-standardized requirements. . In this paper, we proposed TENN to infer color recipe based on unstructured data with emotional natural language, and demonstrated it.
Depth-guided Texture Diffusion for Image Semantic Segmentation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Depth information provides valuable insights into the 3D structure especially the outline of objects, which can be utilized to improve the semantic segmentation tasks. However, a naive fusion of depth information can disrupt feature and compromise accuracy due to the modality gap between the depth and the vision. In this work, we introduce a Depth-guided Texture Diffusion approach that effectively tackles the outlined challenge. Our method extracts low-level features from edges and textures to create a texture image. This image is then selectively diffused across the depth map, enhancing structural information vital for precisely extracting object outlines. By integrating this enriched depth map with the original RGB image into a joint feature embedding, our method effectively bridges the disparity between the depth map and the image, enabling more accurate semantic segmentation. We conduct comprehensive experiments across diverse, commonly-used datasets spanning a wide range of semantic segmentation tasks, including Camouflaged Object Detection (COD), Salient Object Detection (SOD), and indoor semantic segmentation. With source-free estimated depth or depth captured by depth cameras, our method consistently outperforms existing baselines and achieves new state-of-theart results, demonstrating the effectiveness of our Depth-guided Texture Diffusion for image semantic segmentation.
Heterogeneity-Aware Memory Efficient Federated Learning via Progressive Layer Freezing
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2024
Year: 2024

In this paper, we propose SmartFreeze, a framework that effectively reduces the memory footprint by conducting the training in a progressive manner. Instead of updating the full model in each training round, SmartFreeze divides the shared model into blocks consisting of a specified number of layers. It first trains the front block with a well-designed output module, safely freezes it after convergence, and then triggers the training of the next one. This process iterates until the whole model has been successfully trained. In this way, the backward computation of the frozen blocks and the corresponding memory space for storing the intermediate outputs and gradients are effectively saved. Except for the progressive training framework, SmartFreeze consists of the following two core components: a pace controller and a participant selector. The pace controller is designed to effectively monitor the training progress of each block at runtime and safely freezes them after convergence while the participant selector selects the right devices to participate in the training for each block by jointly considering the memory capacity, the statistical and system heterogeneity. Extensive experiments are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of SmartFreeze on both simulation and hardware testbeds. The results demonstrate that SmartFreeze effectively reduces average memory usage by up to 82%. Moreover, it simultaneously improves the model accuracy by up to 83.1% and accelerates the training process up to 2.02X.
Using neuroevolution for designing soft medical devices
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

Soft robots can exhibit better performance in specific tasks compared to conventional robots, particularly in healthcare-related tasks. However, the field of soft robotics is still young, and designing them often involves mimicking natural organisms or relying heavily on human experts' creativity. A formal automated design process is required. We propose the use of neuroevolution-based algorithms to automatically design initial sketches of soft actuators that can enable the movement of future medical devices, such as drug-delivering catheters. The actuator morphologies discovered by algorithms like Age-Fitness Pareto Optimization, NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT), and Hypercube-based NEAT (HyperNEAT) were compared based on the maximum displacement reached and their robustness against various control methods. Analyzing the results granted the insight that neuroevolution-based algorithms produce better-performing and more robust actuators under different control methods. Moreover, the best-performing morphologies were discovered by the NEAT algorithm. As a future work aspect, we propose using the morphologies discovered here as test beds to optimize specialized controllers, enabling more effective functionality towards the desired deflections of the suggested soft catheters.
Training Verifiably Robust Agents Using Set-Based Reinforcement Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Reinforcement learning often uses neural networks to solve complex control tasks. However, neural networks are sensitive to input perturbations, which makes their deployment in safety-critical environments challenging. This work lifts recent results from formally verifying neural networks against such disturbances to reinforcement learning in continuous state and action spaces using reachability analysis. While previous work mainly focuses on adversarial attacks for robust reinforcement learning, we train neural networks utilizing entire sets of perturbed inputs and maximize the worst-case reward. The obtained agents are verifiably more robust than agents obtained by related work, making them more applicable in safety-critical environments. This is demonstrated with an extensive empirical evaluation of four different benchmarks.
Markov Balance Satisfaction Improves Performance in Strictly Batch Offline Imitation Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Imitation learning (IL) is notably effective for robotic tasks where directly programming behaviors or defining optimal control costs is challenging. In this work, we address a scenario where the imitator relies solely on observed behavior and cannot make environmental interactions during learning. It does not have additional supplementary datasets beyond the expert's dataset nor any information about the transition dynamics. Unlike state-of-the-art (SOTA) IL methods, this approach tackles the limitations of conventional IL by operating in a more constrained and realistic setting. Our method uses the Markov balance equation and introduces a novel conditional density estimation-based imitation learning framework. It employs conditional normalizing flows for transition dynamics estimation and aims at satisfying a balance equation for the environment. Through a series of numerical experiments on Classic Control and MuJoCo environments, we demonstrate consistently superior empirical performance compared to many SOTA IL algorithms.
Chinese Metaphor Recognition Using a Multi-stage Prompting Large Language Model
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

Metaphors are common in everyday language, and the identification and understanding of metaphors are facilitated by models to achieve a better understanding of the text. Metaphors are mainly identified and generated by pre-trained models in existing research, but situations, where tenors or vehicles are not included in the metaphor, cannot be handled. The problem can be effectively solved by using Large Language Models (LLMs), but significant room for exploration remains in this early-stage research area. A multi-stage generative heuristic-enhanced prompt framework is proposed in this study to enhance the ability of LLMs to recognize tenors, vehicles, and grounds in Chinese metaphors. In the first stage, a small model is trained to obtain the required confidence score for answer candidate generation. In the second stage, questions are clustered and sampled according to specific rules. Finally, the heuristic-enhanced prompt needed is formed by combining the generated answer candidates and demonstrations. The proposed model achieved 3rd place in Track 1 of Subtask 1, 1st place in Track 2 of Subtask 1, and 1st place in both tracks of Subtask 2 at the NLPCC-2024 Shared Task 9.
MambaTrack: A Simple Baseline for Multiple Object Tracking with State Space Model
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Tracking by detection has been the prevailing paradigm in the field of Multi-object Tracking (MOT). These methods typically rely on the Kalman Filter to estimate the future locations of objects, assuming linear object motion. However, they fall short when tracking objects exhibiting nonlinear and diverse motion in scenarios like dancing and sports. In addition, there has been limited focus on utilizing learning-based motion predictors in MOT. To address these challenges, we resort to exploring data-driven motion prediction methods. Inspired by the great expectation of state space models (SSMs), such as Mamba, in long-term sequence modeling with near-linear complexity, we introduce a Mamba-based motion model named Mamba moTion Predictor (MTP). MTP is designed to model the complex motion patterns of objects like dancers and athletes. Specifically, MTP takes the spatial-temporal location dynamics of objects as input, captures the motion pattern using a bi-Mamba encoding layer, and predicts the next motion. In real-world scenarios, objects may be missed due to occlusion or motion blur, leading to premature termination of their trajectories. To tackle this challenge, we further expand the application of MTP. We employ it in an autoregressive way to compensate for missing observations by utilizing its own predictions as inputs, thereby contributing to more consistent trajectories. Our proposed tracker, MambaTrack, demonstrates advanced performance on benchmarks such as Dancetrack and SportsMOT, which are characterized by complex motion and severe occlusion.
Der Weg zur digitalen Arbeitsmappe: Digitales Prüfungswesen mit Zertifizierung
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2024
Year: 2024

The aim of the work is to present an alternative approach to recording and evaluating student performance that enables sustainable performance recording with the possibility of integrating practical components in particular. The intended result is a digital portfolio with work samples - and not just certificates, which can be understood as a portfolio examination in the context of academic assessment. This is more about the recording, evaluation and certification of learning progress and competencies than the selective evaluation of a performance review, as is the case today, for example, with the submission of final theses. The idea is to expand and later replace final papers and performance tests, particularly in higher semesters, and instead introduce electronically recorded portfolio examinations - based on the example of teaching projects. Technologically, the approach is based on blockchain and wallets/repositories and, in the broadest sense, on an implementation of smart contracts. The technological approach of smart contracts enables a high degree of traceability and transparency with little administrative effort. It also offers secure certification of services by the provider. It should be clearly stated that neither the portfolio examination nor the administration of academic achievements with smart contracts is the original idea, but rather the change in the recording of academic achievements towards an alternative approach to the recording and evaluation of student performance, which enables sustainable performance recording with the possibility of integrating practical components in particular. The desired result is a digital portfolio with work samples. The primary aim of this idea sketch is to develop an individualized performance record for students, which can also contribute to making performance more transparent and comprehensible.
Maintainability Challenges in ML: A Systematic Literature Review
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Background: As Machine Learning (ML) advances rapidly in many fields, it is being adopted by academics and businesses alike. However, ML has a number of different challenges in terms of maintenance not found in traditional software projects. Identifying what causes these maintainability challenges can help mitigate them early and continue delivering value in the long run without degrading ML performance. Aim: This study aims to identify and synthesise the maintainability challenges in different stages of the ML workflow and understand how these stages are interdependent and impact each other's maintainability. Method: Using a systematic literature review, we screened more than 13000 papers, then selected and qualitatively analysed 56 of them. Results: (i) a catalogue of maintainability challenges in different stages of Data Engineering, Model Engineering workflows and the current challenges when building ML systems are discussed; (ii) a map of 13 maintainability challenges to different interdependent stages of ML that impact the overall workflow; (iii) Provided insights to developers of ML tools and researchers. Conclusions: In this study, practitioners and organisations will learn about maintainability challenges and their impact at different stages of ML workflow. This will enable them to avoid pitfalls and help to build a maintainable ML system. The implications and challenges will also serve as a basis for future research to strengthen our understanding of the ML system's maintainability.
Architectural Foundations for the Large Language Model Infrastructures
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

The development of a large language model (LLM) infrastructure is a pivotal undertaking in artificial intelligence. This paper explores the intricate landscape of LLM infrastructure, software, and data management. By analyzing these core components, we emphasize the pivotal considerations and safeguards crucial for successful LLM development. This work presents a concise synthesis of the challenges and strategies inherent in constructing a robust and effective LLM infrastructure, offering valuable insights for researchers and practitioners alike.
H2PIPE: High throughput CNN Inference on FPGAs with High-Bandwidth Memory
Venue: arXiv cs.AR 2024
Year: 2024

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) combine large amounts of parallelizable computation with frequent memory access. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) can achieve low latency and high throughput CNN inference by implementing dataflow accelerators that pipeline layer-specific hardware to implement an entire network. By implementing a different processing element for each CNN layer, these layer-pipelined accelerators can achieve high compute density, but having all layers processing in parallel requires high memory bandwidth. Traditionally this has been satisfied by storing all weights on chip, but this is infeasible for the largest CNNs, which are often those most in need of acceleration. In this work we augment a state-of-the-art dataflow accelerator (HPIPE) to leverage both High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and on-chip storage, enabling high performance layer-pipelined dataflow acceleration of large CNNs. Based on profiling results of HBM's latency and throughput against expected address patterns, we develop an algorithm to choose which weight buffers should be moved off chip and how deep the on-chip FIFOs to HBM should be to minimize compute unit stalling. We integrate the new hardware generation within the HPIPE domain-specific CNN compiler and demonstrate good bandwidth efficiency against theoretical limits. Compared to the best prior work we obtain speed-ups of at least 19.4x, 5.1x and 10.5x on ResNet-18, ResNet-50 and VGG-16 respectively.
Neuro-Symbolic AI for Military Applications
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a significant role in enhancing the capabilities of defense systems, revolutionizing strategic decision-making, and shaping the future landscape of military operations. Neuro-Symbolic AI is an emerging approach that leverages and augments the strengths of neural networks and symbolic reasoning. These systems have the potential to be more impactful and flexible than traditional AI systems, making them well-suited for military applications. This paper comprehensively explores the diverse dimensions and capabilities of Neuro-Symbolic AI, aiming to shed light on its potential applications in military contexts. We investigate its capacity to improve decision-making, automate complex intelligence analysis, and strengthen autonomous systems. We further explore its potential to solve complex tasks in various domains, in addition to its applications in military contexts. Through this exploration, we address ethical, strategic, and technical considerations crucial to the development and deployment of Neuro-Symbolic AI in military and civilian applications. Contributing to the growing body of research, this study represents a comprehensive exploration of the extensive possibilities offered by Neuro-Symbolic AI.
ByCAN: Reverse Engineering Controller Area Network (CAN) Messages from Bit to Byte Level
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

As the primary standard protocol for modern cars, the Controller Area Network (CAN) is a critical research target for automotive cybersecurity threats and autonomous applications. As the decoding specification of CAN is a proprietary black-box maintained by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), conducting related research and industry developments can be challenging without a comprehensive understanding of the meaning of CAN messages. In this paper, we propose a fully automated reverse-engineering system, named ByCAN, to reverse engineer CAN messages. ByCAN outperforms existing research by introducing byte-level clusters and integrating multiple features at both byte and bit levels. ByCAN employs the clustering and template matching algorithms to automatically decode the specifications of CAN frames without the need for prior knowledge. Experimental results demonstrate that ByCAN achieves high accuracy in slicing and labeling performance, i.e., the identification of CAN signal boundaries and labels. In the experiments, ByCAN achieves slicing accuracy of 80.21%, slicing coverage of 95.21%, and labeling accuracy of 68.72% for general labels when analyzing the real-world CAN frames.